Hostler Tim

The character Tim always bothered me from the Highwayman, so sorry to mess with a classic poem but I had to flesh out the character.

I know what people say about what happened at the old inn, that Tim the hostler betrayed Will and Bess to the solders. I haven’t talked about it to anyone for many a year, but I think it might be time to clear the air. When even all the way out here, so far from the old inn, I still hear people saying such things it might be time to say something. But I’m only going to tell the story once, it isn’t a nice story and I don’t feel like thinking about it more then I have to.

It is true what they say, I did love Bess the inn keepers daughter. I also knew with stone cold certainty that she would never love me back. Even when I was younger I wasn’t a handsome man by any means. I knew that then and I know it now. Even if Bess hadn’t been in love with the highwayman Will she wouldn’t have given me a second glance. So in spite of the rumors I wasn’t jealous of the couple. Actually I supported them fully. They were my couple, I know it might sound pathetic but sometimes I even imagined that I was Will. I had no reason to want him dead; I wouldn’t kill a man who I sometimes projected myself onto. He was everything I am not, brave, dashing, handsome, glorious.

It is true, I was watching them that last night, when they said goodbye to each other for that last time. They were a beautiful couple, perfectly suited to one another in a way that Bess and I would never have matched one another. They had this tune that he would whistle and she would throw her window open, it didn’t matter how late it was. I used to day dream that I whistled the same tune and she showed me the same welcome. That night it happened the same as always. He whistled and she threw open the shutters. I listened as they whispered sweet nothings and then he told her that he had a job to do.

Bess watched Will as he walked away, for a minute maybe I did feel just the slightest twinge of jealousy. He had everything I wished I could have had. I shook the feeling off however. Bess stood framed in the window for a short time, looking after the highwayman and then closed the shutters again. I also went to my bed in the stable and dreamt the deep sleep of the guiltless.

The next morning I woke to find Bess already up before me. I would wake before dawn to care for the horses and do my chores but Bess was at her window long before that. She never said a word but she was looking towards the west and I knew who she looked for. She never wavered in her vigil, nor moved from her post, though the day waned and still she stood.

It was almost dusk when troop of solders came marching up from the west. No one notices me so I was able to slip in behind the solders and watch as they ordered ale. The innkeeper looked at them nervously but they didn’t tell him why they had come and he didn’t have the nerve to ask. After they had drunk their ales they walked out of the main room as a group and without asking for directions made their way to Bess’s room and closed the door. The innkeeper seemed to have decided he wanted nothing to do with any of this, though it was his daughter who was in danger. I couldn’t follow them into the room but I cared enough that I went and stood under her window where I could hear all that went on.

First they tied her to the foot of her bed, standing up, but they couldn’t make her stand still even so. Finally in frustration they used the muskets of one of the men to make her stand straight. They tied her to the musket and so she was forced to stand ramrod straight with a gun pointed at her chest. It was cruelty upon cruelty and I could hardly stand to listen to it except that it would have done me no good to try a rescue. I would have been shot down in all likelihood and no good would have come of it. That’s what I told myself at the time. A coward’s excuse I will admit, but the point is I did nothing as they said the most disgusting things about her and kissed those lips that I had never dared to kiss. Still she said nothing and I dared to peek up to make sure she was still alive. She simply stood there, tied to her bed as she was a looked to the west where Will had gone.

Since I could do nothing, I too started to watch towards the west, enjoying the slight connection it made me feel with Bess. I sat under her window, with the solders right above me, their guns cocked and Bess tied to her bed, and we all waited for the same man to come.

It wasn’t until well past midnight, with all of my duties forsaken all the day, that the sound of hoof beats on the road were heard. I could hear them approach and there was no doubt in my mind who it was who came. I could also hear Bess draw a sharp breath, and the soldiers cock their guns, now all was in readiness. No matter what I could have done, it wouldn’t have changed the scene. I wasn’t a player in the drama anymore then the rat in the barn was.

Then the gun went off. It sounded like one of the soldiers’ guns but from the sounds they made it wasn’t one of theirs. Not fired by them anyway. I turned and saw Will wheel his horse and dash away, to safety, clearly unharmed. I could hear what was going on over my head, so what confusion I had was soon dispelled.

“The little whore shot herself,” exclaimed one voice. I held my breath.

“Well how did she shoot herself?” asked another voice.

“The gun we used to tie her to. She must have got her hands ‘round to the trigger and fired it. With it tied right under her chest, the bullet went to her heart. God but she’s a bloody mess.”

“There’s all our work for nothing, not unless the gun shot doesn’t frighten him away forever. We’ll stay around for a couple of days and see if she comes back around. If not we’ll have to give up,” said the voice of the man I knew to be the officer.

I felt cold; it was Bess who they were talking about in such a casual manner. There was nothing I could do about it of course. I was only one man and I didn’t have so much as a knife while they had guns. I know that I cried, through that long night, I don’t think I moved even once from my post under that window, though I know that the solders took shifts to sleep. They gave Bess’s body to her father as casually as you could ever imagine. They made me sick. It wasn’t until near dawn that I cam to my final conclusion on what to do.

Now I will say that I weigh the death of Will on my shoulders, unintentional though it was. I meant to save his life, instead he died. Bess had died to warn off Will from coming. Come again he would, for he couldn’t be kept apart from Bess. The solders would stay until they grew tired of waiting and he had to be kept away until then or Bess’s final wishes would be disrespected. It was my duty to tell Will what had happened and get him away from that place.

I knew where it was that Will hid, a house way out in the woods where they would never find him. I knew where it was since I had heard him tell Bess about it one night. My grieving gave me boldness I would never have possessed otherwise. I stole away on the officer’s horse and reached the woods where Will kept himself a little before noon. I led the horse into a thicket where it wouldn’t be discovered and found my way to the house where Will lived.

When I looked through the window and saw Will sleeping peacefully on his bed I was filled with pity. He had no idea what had happened, his peace would soon be shattered, probably forever. Still it was a task I had charged myself with. I went around and knocked on the door. I expected him to take a couple of minutes to answer the door since he had been asleep, but he was at the door in an instant with his sword in his hand. He looked shocked when he realized who it was.

“You’re the hostler from the old inn aren’t you?” he demanded. “What do you want? Did Bess send you?”

“After a fashion,” I answered, now that I had started on this errand I was starting to realize just how difficult it was. “You heard the gunshot last night?” I asked. I decided that coming around to it in a round about fashion was the easiest.

“Yes, was I discovered by the solders? I thought I might have been, since one of the drivers of the coach last night recognized me, even with the mask over my face. He had stopped at the inn before and happened to have seen me speaking to Bess. Is Bess alright? They didn’t hurt her did they?”

“Well they tied her up and they kissed her,” I said. I was still not able to come out with it all. “There was nothing I could do to stop them.”

“So what happened to her, where is she now? I have to go see her,” he had started to go frantic.

“She’s dead,” I finally said. “That was that gunshot; she shot herself, since it was the only way to warn you that the solders were there. They had tied her and gagged her so she couldn’t shout or anything, but they had tied her to a gun.” I almost sobbed again to tell of it and I had expected Will to collapse with sorrow. Instead his eyes grew like those of a demon.

He spoke not one word to me, he simply shoved by me. He still had his sword in hand as he started to mount the horse that I had ridden. I had no doubt to his purpose, his face, and still drawn sword told me everything I wanted to know. I tried to hold him back but I am a weaker man, for all that I spend my days working in a barn, and he was fueled by rage. He threw me off as if I was a leaf.

“You are wasting her death, going to get yourself killed by the solders. You have a sword, they have guns. You’ll die. Get away from here, far from here, and never come back,” I shouted at him. I don’t think he even heard me. If he did he showed no sign of it.

I thought of chasing after him but there was no point. He was so set in his purpose that he would have gone even had hell bared the way. What drove him now was nothing that I could stop. I knew that he went to die and having had Bess die right above me I had no wish to witness his death as well. Especially since I would probably have been named an accomplice and shot as well.

Will had taken the horse I had ridden on, but there was still his horse behind the house. He wouldn’t be coming back to miss it I knew. I saddled it and turned its head to the west, with no idea where I would go. All that I knew was that I wanted to get as far away from the old inn as I could. It had become a place only of tragedy as far as I was concerned.

I drifted until I came here and got a job working in these stables, it’s a long way from the old inn, but I still hear the story told. I also still hear people blame me for everything. Maybe it’s because I ran away like I did. I don’t think I could have faced the bodies of Bess and Will though. Bess because I hadn’t been able to carry out her final wishes and Will because had I been half the man he was I would have joined in death.

The rumors say that their ghosts still meet like they always did in the past. He will whistle a tune and she will open the shutters just like the old days. I like to think that it’s true. Some days I think I would like to go there and see for myself, look on their meetings just like I did in the old days. I don’t think I could meet their ghosts any more then I could meet their bodies however. I will never go near the old inn again. That’s the only decision I can come to.

There you have it. I know I am a pathetic, cowardly man, but at least I never was a traitor. I did all I thought that I could and I never would have done anything to harm Bess. I do wish that I had been able to stop Will though.